It's our job to make sure all dental professionals meet the standards we set for joining our registers, and demonstrate they have continued to meet these standards throughout their career.

All UK courses leading to registration as a dental professional must be approved by us. We regularly check courses we have approved through a process of quality assurance. We have prepared a guide for patients (pdf, 124 Kb) which explains our quality assurance process. Detailed guidance for course providers and awarding bodies is also available.

Standards

The standards we expect dental professionals to have reached at the end of their education and training for registration are set out in two documents:

• The First Five Years for dentists (pdf, 100 Kb)
• Developing the Dental Team for each of the six groups of DCPs (pdf, 197 Kb)

Quality Assurance

We quality assure existing and new courses leading to registration for both dentists and DCPs. We do this through an annual monitoring exercise and inspections. When we carry out an inspection, our inspectors produce reports on their findings:

• View Inspections of DCP Programmes
• View Inspections of BDS and BChD Programmes

It is also part of our job to ensure dentists and DCPs who join our registers continue to meet the standards we require throughout their career. We do this in several ways:

• Dentists and DCPs are required to carry out continuing professional development (CPD) 
• We are developing a system of revalidation, which means all dental professionals must be able to show on a regular basis that they continue to meet our standards for registration
• We hold specialist lists of dentists who have met our standards, and can be listed as a specialist in their area of dentistry, eg, orthodontics

Our plans

We have recently carried out a review of what our role should be in future in relation to the education of dentists and DCPs and how we can strengthen our protection for patients. The review was carried out by an Education Strategic Review Group, which reported to our Education Committee on 24 April 2008. The Education Committee endorsed the findings of the review and will agree an implementation plan in February 2009.

Read an updated summary of the Review recommendations and Education Committee discussions. An implementation update is available here (word document).

We are currently reviewing the learning outcomes for qualifications leading to registration with the GDC.  For further information please go to our designated web page.

Implantology

One of the issues the Review highlighted was increasing concern over dentists practising implantology, and the need to make sure that only dentists who have carried out appropriate training offer patients implant services. The Education Committee has issued a policy statement in the light of these concerns and will consult on how to regulate the practice of implantology in early 2009.